The Edge of the Night
by afinefringefrenzy
Summary: After second-guessing her mother's sincerity, Regina finds herself at the Charming's apartment. How she finds herself in Emma's bed is another story. Swan Queen. (Rated T guys, nothing happens- only cuddling)
1. The Edge of the Night

**This is my first fic in, well, forever, so bear with me. I've been shipping Swan Queen like crazy recently and just had to write something.**

**Takes place right after episode 2x12.**

The gentle sunlight that streamed in through the window woke Emma gradually and incrementally. She became aware of her surroundings little by little as her thick drowsiness began to ebb. Her body was warm, not, as she slowly realized, from the sunlight, but from a solid figure tucked underneath her arm and pressed against her body. It radiated heat and an alluring aroma that evoked feelings of safety, contentment, and happiness in Emma. She snuggled closer and breathed in the scent deeply, causing soft hairs to tickle her nose. Emma nuzzled her head deeper into that soft hair...

And suddenly, she snapped out of her drowsiness and woke with a start, discovering, to her horror, that the figure she embraced like a lover was Regina!

* * *

Regina lay awake, with a crippling uncertainty clawing at her mind that kept her from sleep. An uncertainty that stemmed from the sleeping form in the guest room down the hallway—her mother.

Had she been wrong to trust her mother, to accept her back into her life, after what she had done to get herself there? She'd left her broken. Not to mention everything, _all the things _her mother had done to her in the span of her life. Why should this time be any different? Why should she be deserving of her trust now, why should she deserve to have her daughter back? Yet at the same time, despite the alarms going off in her mind, Regina wanted so desperately to believe that her mother, just like her, was trying to redeem herself. And she wanted someone she could call family again. She wanted it so desperately, but her past and her childhood memories, held her back. They shattered this illusion of her mother—loving and reformed—every time she revisited them.

But Cora had promised to get Henry back.

And all Regina really wanted anymore was her son.

That was what made it so difficult to give in to her mother's untrustworthy past—to turn her in right then and there and reclaim her innocence. Though she was manipulative and cruel, her mother was powerful and if it was in anyone's power to regain her son, it was Cora. _But would he love me then? _Could Cora truly recapture her son's love, or merely his presence?

If Henry knew that she was innocent of the terrible crime her mother had committed in her guise, would that make him trust her again? Emma would have no excuse to keep her son from her then, and Henry could come back. Henry could see how hard she was trying to change, to be good for him.

_I'm considering trading my mother for my son,_ Regina realized. What kind of person was she, to barter with her family? There was not even a guarantee that turning in her mother would bring things back to the way they used to be with Henry, before Emma came to Storybrooke. Sure, turning in her mother would surely win some of the town's trust and her innocence would force the Charmings to let her have her son back. But to side with her—they would be unstoppable. And she had promised Henry. A guarantee.

That was, of course, if her mother wasn't playing some cruel game with her. The consequences of teaming up with Cora and her plan to get Henry back failing, or turning out to be a trap, would be devastating. Whether she proved her innocence or not, the Charmings would take it as a sign that she was turning back into who she had been before and they would never let her have her son back. Did she trust her mother enough to risk that? She remembered that night again, where her mother had taken Daniel from her, and how she'd tricked her into thinking she'd cared about what made _her_ happy for once. Could a woman such as that ever change? Regina wasn't even completely sure that she herself could.

Regina was feeling, and far from the first time, completely and wholly alone. What was different this time was that she felt so uncertain. Before, she surely would have begun concocting another marvelous scheme to enact her revenge, but now she was beginning to understand that her previous plots for revenge and plans to regain her admiration, would never allow her to attain what she had truly lost—love.

The recent presence of her mother had done nothing to ease the crippling solitude she felt. Without the presence of Henry, her house felt suffocatingly empty. She didn't want to stay here a second longer, not with the reminders of what she had lost everywhere. _I could leave. I could leave right now and tell everyone that it was Cora and I could try to fix things…again, _a rash voice sounded in her head. _But_ _how could I do that? How could I betray the only family I have left?_

The battle taking place in Regina's mind made her want to scream. Why couldn't she just do something? Why couldn't she just get her son back?

She continued to ponder for what felt like hours, considering the possibilities laid out before her, yet no matter how hard she tried she couldn't shake off the memory of her mother killing Daniel, of her ripping out her true love's heart. She would take the chance over the guarantee, she realized, rather risk a recurrence of that moment. _Love is weakness, Regina._ She couldn't trust her mother and her mother couldn't love her. Regina was a fool to think she could. She refused to let herself feel the same vulnerability wither that she had had in the car with her again.

She refused to let Cora break her.

And so, Regina slipped quietly out of her empty house, leaving to find the Sheriff and start to fix her problems by giving up the mother that had never truly cared for her. She half expected to have her mother catch her sneaking out, just as she had done with Daniel all those years ago, but she was not stopped.

Going to see the Sheriff, she realized, meant the possibility that she would have to deal with the "two idiots", as she had oh so _charmingly _nicknamed David and Mary Margaret. After all, the whole Charming family lived under the same roof now. Yet she smugly relished the possibility of waking them rudely from their sleep this late at night. And Emma, being the Sheriff, she'd have to deal with, but she supposed that she'd just have to handle the golden-tressed honorary idiot that Henry had taken to so strongly.

The knock on the Charming's door was so timid that at first Emma didn't hear it, despite being the only member of the household well awake at this hour, being kept from sleep worrying about this favor she owed Rumple and what it might entail. It was only Regina's last knock, right as she was about to leave, that finally caught her attention.

She opened the door to find Regina's uncharacteristically nervous form standing in her doorway—the last person she would have expected to find.

"Regina?" she asked incredulously "…What are you doing here?"

"I have some evidence. Evidence to prove I didn't commit that crime. It—" the woman paused, her mouth seemingly uncertain of what words to form, "I just need a few days to get it together."

"Regina, wait! We know it was Cora! We found Archie, he told us everything. I…I knew you didn't do it. I believed you." Emma had been so relieved to find out the truth and know that her intuitions hadn't been wrong. Especially, she'd been pleased to know that Regina hadn't given up on trying to change. Emma smiled gently and Regina couldn't help but smile back, but it didn't last long before it was replaced with an expression of irritation and resentment.

"Archie's alive!? But…why wasn't I told sooner?" She responded harshly.

"There was an emergency at the hospital and we couldn't leave!" Emma's smile fell slightly as Regina acknowledged the excuse with narrowed eyes.

"I want to see Henry." She demanded. "He knows that I'm innocent now, I assume. I want to see my son."

"I'm not waking Henry up at…2:00 in the morning so you two can "catch up". He needs his sleep." Emma retorted.

"I want to see my son."

"And you can see him when he wakes up. Until then…" Emma opened the door wide, jokingly beckoning Regina in, "You can make yourself at home."

Ignoring Emma's falsely warm invitation, Regina entered the apartment, her arms crossed over her chest, making it clear that she had no intention of leaving.

"And… you took me up on that offer." Emma mumbled, "That was kind of a joke, you know."

"You offered, I accepted. I'm not leaving here until I can talk with Henry. And if I have to wait here until he wakes up, I'll do that."

"Alright, fine!" Emma snapped, Regina's insistence starting to get on her nerves. "I'm going to bed. And there's nowhere for you to sleep unless you want the other side of my bed."

Emma regretted that offer the moment it escaped her lips, knowing for sure that the other woman would accept again, just to get under her skin.

"I'll take it." Regina replied with a sly smile.

Of course.

"Fine! Make yourself at home!"

Though she thought she had done a good job of passing it off as such, Regina hadn't really just asked for the bed space in order get under Emma's skin. In truth, what she wanted more than anything right then was the escape from her world of uncertainty, confusion, and dilemmas that sleep would provide, even if only momentary. Provided, of course, that she could manage to fall asleep, curled up at the edge of this stranger's cold bed. _They know that it was Cora…_ She'd made the snap decision to protect her mother in the end, which she was still not sure why she'd done, but it hardly mattered now. They may not know where Cora was now—Regina would have to get her out of her house somehow, she realized—but they'd find her soon enough. And as terrible as that was, it filled Regina with a sense of relief. At least the decision wasn't hers anymore. She wouldn't have to choose between mother or child or the possibility of both because her child was being chosen for her. Before she wouldn't have appreciated having her choosing ability taken away from her, but now she was grateful for anything to take the edge off her uncertainty.

A sudden rustling of the covers came from the other side of the bed, distracting Regina from her thought. Apparently Emma was a restless sleeper, she noted as she watched the other woman fidget and roll over, obviously fast asleep. Her rolling over brought her closer and closer to Regina's side of the bed and each time she advanced, Regina's annoyance with her grew. _On top of everything, she's a bedhog too. Lovely. _Doing her best to ignore her, Regina laid her head back down on the pillow. Yet suddenly, rolling over one last time, Emma ended up shockingly close to her, with her warm body pressed up against Regina's back. Regina froze, shocked by the other woman's immediate presence, unsure of what she should do. Turning her head again, Regina observed that Emma was still deep in sleep and probably had no idea of her actions. _Definitely_ had no idea, if their long-standing rivalry said anything.

_She did say that she had believed me, though._

Regina tried to nudge Emma away with her shoulder, but the sleeping woman refused to budge, pressing her warmth even closer to Regina. _Of all the annoying things! _And yet it felt strangely comforting, Regina admitted warily. It had been so long since Regina had enjoyed close companionship such as this, even if one of the members wasn't consciously partaking. Emma's warmth made the unfamiliar bed feel less unwelcoming.

Another gentle nudge did nothing to remove her unexpected company, but it didn't bother Regina as much this time. There was something about Emma's close presence that helped ease her loneliness, and even made her feel, somehow, loved. _Stop being ridiculous._ The restless sleeper had no love for her—the woman who had caused so much death, destruction, and misery and whom she didn't even consider a fit mother for her own son. Not even what she was asleep.

_She believed me, though. _

Nevertheless, Regina closed her eyes, allowing the escape from loneliness that Emma's warm presence somehow managed to provide envelop her. She couldn't protest when Emma unconsciously draped her arm over Regina's body, her presence surrounding her even more now, feeling strangely like home, yet coming from the most unexpected source. Regina found herself finally able to surrender to sleep.

_The gentle sunlight that streamed in through the window woke Emma gradually and incrementally. She became aware of her surroundings little by little as her thick drowsiness began to ebb. Her body was warm, not, as she slowly realized, from the sunlight, but from a solid figure tucked underneath her arm and pressed against her body. It radiated heat and an alluring aroma that evoked feelings of safety, contentment, and happiness in Emma. She snuggled closer and breathed in the scent deeply, causing soft hairs to tickle her nose. Emma nuzzled her head deeper into that soft hair..._

_And suddenly, she snapped out of her drowsiness and woke with a start, discovering, to her horror, that the figure she embraced like a lover was Regina!_ She froze, her mind racing to understand this situation—how she had ended up like this—with Regina—in her bed. Logically, she assured herself that she had just rolled over in her sleep and responded to the warmth on the other side of the bed, but that rational conclusion solved no problems. She was struggling to silence that part of her mind reminding her of the state of bliss she had found herself in snuggled next to Regina.

_How ridiculous! _Emma didn't even know if this woman was trustworthy. She had seen how much she was trying to change, but could that erase all of the terrors she had caused in her past? A woman whose rage had been so profound that she had cursed the inhabitants of this town with a terrible fate. The two tolerated each other, for Henry, and that was it, she tried to tell herself. And yet Regina's scent still lingered in her nose, her warmth in her bones, and her blissful proximity in her mind.

She slowly and gently untangled herself from Regina's still-sleeping form, so as not to wake her and enlighten her to the situation. She rolled back over to her side of the bed, back to the lonely edge where she had fallen asleep last night. She stared numbly at the other woman's back, which unhurriedly expanded and contracted with breath. Her mind told her to shut her eyes and just forget about this, so that maybe she could pass it off as an odd dream, but she remained fixated on the gentle curve of Regina's body and her dark, sleep tousled hair that her head had rested in only moments before.

_What is happening to me?_

Just as Emma was about to turn over and force herself to fall back asleep, a sudden movement from the other side of the bed startled her. She shut her eyes, doing her best to make herself appear fast asleep, despite the tension in her muscles, as she heard the rustle of the covers. The noise soon ceased, however, and after a long period of silence punctuated only by deep and steady breaths, Emma opened her eyes to find that Regina had only turned over to lay on her other side. In sleep, the regal, terrifying woman's face was shockingly peaceful and innocent. It was her mouth, Emma decided, that no longer took the form of a scowl or a wicked grin, but was relaxed, rounded, and opened slightly. It wasn't angry, sad, smiling, or frowning, but simply peaceful, despite even the scar on her upper lip, which Emma had considered another testament to her wickedness.

Emma felt almost dazed, stunned by these newfound feelings she felt for the woman lying beside her. _They're nothing, perhaps only the remnants of some odd dream you can't remember, _her mind told her, still trying to rationalize it away, but her body, which still remembered the feeling of Regina's form against it, whispered otherwise.


	2. So Much for Forgetting

**I wasn't actually planning on continuing this when I wrote the first part, but a lot of people asked, so here we are. Please review!**

**I'm not going to be following the plot of the new episodes, unless some of it works with this. Also, pretend that Henry didn't go with Emma on her trip with Rumple!**

* * *

With a heavy sigh, Emma climbed out of bed—resolving to get some breakfast and forget about all this. Some distance between her and the sleeping woman would help, she assured herself. In the kitchen, Emma found that the box of cereal from last night was still out on the counter, so she poured herself a bowl.

The apartment was quiet, with no ambient noise or other presences to distract Emma as she ate. No _physical_ presences, of course, as it was the traces of Regina's presence, which she still couldn't rid from her mind, that Emma sought a distraction from. The parts of Emma that had lain next to her felt hotter than the rest of her body, as if Regina's warmth still lingered there like a ghost. And her scent, which still remained heavy on her mind and which she carried on her clothes, didn't help either. _So much for forgetting, _she sighed.

Emma was still baffled—about how she'd ended up where she'd ended up that morning, but mostly about the way that Regina had managed to enchant her, almost. _What a ridiculous notion! _Part of Emma still resisted fiercely, rebelling against the jumble of emotions she felt, and holding that this all really was the result of a dream. Her mind shouted these rejections, doing its best to smother the compelling whispers that held otherwise.

Emma shook her head in frustration, trying desperately once more to clear her mind. When that didn't work, she began grasping for other trains of thought—anything that didn't have to do with the woman asleep in her bed. _Rumple! _Rumple would collect her favor to him today and soon she'd be leaving, dragged along on his likely futile quest to find his son. She'd be going far away from here, far away from… _Damnit! _

"Hey Emma." Henry's sudden appearance startled her, but his voice was an instant relief, providing the distraction Emma so craved as he sauntered into the kitchen.

"Good morning kid!" She greeted him, perhaps a little too exuberantly, judging by his perplexed expression. "David and Mary Margaret still asleep?"

"Yeah, they are." Henry poured a bowl of cereal for himself and sat down next to Emma.

"Oh, there's someone here to see you, Henry." Emma suddenly remembered that it was Regina's determination to see her son that had caused this whole mess.

"Who is it?"

"Wait here and finish your breakfast, I'll be right back." Though Emma was reluctant to deal with the other woman again, she supposed she might as well get it over with.

In the gently lit bedroom, Regina was still asleep in her bed. Unwittingly, Emma found that the soft magic the other woman had created still lingered. Regina's hand had moved to lie on the pillow, in the indentation where Emma's head had lain, as if searching for her missing presence. Emma's chest tightened when she saw the mark she'd left—solid proof of what had transpired at night.

She walked around to Regina's side of the bed and placed her hand on her warm shoulder, shaking her gently.

"Uhhhh…. Wake up Regina." The other woman stirred, her rounded lips parting as she exhaled tenderly, but she didn't wake. Again, the peacefulness of a sleeping Regina struck her. In all the time she'd know her, Emma had known Regina to be many things, but peaceful was never one of them. And neither was welcoming, as her unexpected, warm presence had been that morning.

_Oh, get a grip on yourself! _How could she be feeling like this? Emma didn't, _couldn't_ feel anything for this woman. It was crazy—not only did she hardly know her, but until recently she had been convinced that she was a murderer! _Yet you still believed in her. _There was no dodging that bullet, Emma _had_ believed strongly in Regina's innocence.

She could hardly stand it anymore, this relentless clashing of her feelings towards the other woman. Emma's confusion suddenly turned into frustration and the hand that had rested so gently on Regina's shoulder shook her violently. Regina awakened with gasp, sitting up with a start to identify her rude awakener.

"Henry's awake." Emma said crossly and she stormed out of the room almost as quickly as Regina had awoken, before she could do anything else stupid.

* * *

Regina was startled, to say the least, after being shaken so abruptly out of her peaceful sleep. _Why had Emma been so upset? _She suddenly remembered the other woman—nestled next to her last night, so close and warm. _It must have just been a dream_, she reflected sullenly. Their interaction had proven, if anything, that Emma was still the same woman who was so easily put on edge by Regina's presence. _But it had felt so real… _Her heart fell, the emptiness in it that Emma had managed to fill suddenly a gaping void once more.

_Henry! _Regina had been so caught up in fretting about the other woman that she had almost missed what Emma had come in to tell her.

She could see her son.

Her son might have forgiven her.

Before she knew it, Regina was out of bed and out of the room, not bothering to worry about her ruffled hair and crumpled clothes. Her heart leapt with joy as she watched her son's expression of bewilderment at her unexpected appearance turn into a broad smile. The next thing she knew—everything seemed to be happening in an instant this morning—she was clutching Henry tightly, in a motherly embrace.

"You didn't do it." Henry stated—rather breathlessly due to Regina's tight grip.

"No, Henry." Regina whispered. She released him, squatting down to be on eye level, and placed her hands warmly on his shoulders. "I'm really trying to change. To be a better mother for you. Do you… do you see that?"

Henry nodded. Tears began to well in Regina's eyes. Whatever may or may not have happened with Emma suddenly paled in comparison to the joy of having her son back.

"Henry, I think you're gonna go back and live with Regina now, okay?" Emma had been hesitant to interrupt their reunion, despite the good news she brought. "Regina, I… I shouldn't have taken him from you. Plus, I'm leaving today at noon anyway, with Rumple."

"You're leaving? With Rumple?" It was stupid, but Regina felt oddly betrayed that Emma would be leaving so soon after what had happened between them. It was stupid because nothing _had_ happened, actually. _Right?_

"Oh yeah, I owe him a favor from a while back. I have to help him find his son or something." Emma shrugged.

"Well good luck with that." An uncomfortable silence followed, as the two women looked at each other, each searching for something in the other's eyes that they couldn't seem to find. For Regina, it was something, _anything_, in Emma that would show her that the nagging feeling that what had happened between them _hadn't_ been just a dream, was right. But Emma's blue eyes remained impassive.

"Well, I should probably go pack some stuff…" Emma's voice finally filled the silence and some of the tension was broken when the two women broke eye contact. She returned to the bedroom, leaving Regina and Henry behind.

"Why don't you go get your stuff too?" Regina suggested to Henry. Except she didn't go with him to wherever he had been staying, but went back into the bedroom with Emma instead. To get her jacket and shoes, of course.

When she walked in, Regina found Emma rifling through the dresser, tossing clothing into an untidy heap on the bed, next to her empty suitcase. The two women acknowledged each other's presence, but didn't say anything as Regina retrieved her jacket and shoes from where she had laid them. She'd slept in her clothes last night, of course, as she hadn't been planning to stay the night when she left the house.

"Would you like some help packing?" Regina asked, Emma's messy, unorganized packing skills starting to get on the consistently well put-together woman's nerves. Emma eyed Regina, looking somewhat perturbed that Regina had the audacity to call her out on her mess. But one look at the pile of already-wrinkling clothes changed her mind.

"Sure, thanks. I could probably use some." Emma admitted with a laugh, allowing a small smile.

"I do hope you were at least planning on _folding_ some of these."

"I'm not going to answer that." Emma replied. Regina shook her head affectionately at Emma's antics, her lips curving into a grin.

"Alright, just toss me the clothes and I'll fold them."

* * *

They worked well together, Emma admitted, even if it was just for the simple task of packing a suitcase. She picked, she tossed, and Regina folded and stacked. An almost comfortable air formed between the two, as each had something else to focus on besides the other.

Emma was just about toss another shirt on the bed, but its silky feel under her fingers suddenly reminded Emma of Regina— of the other woman eyeing her possessively and throwing sarcastic comments at her, like they'd done for so long after they first met. Sure enough, she found that she was holding the silky blue-grey shirt Henry had stolen from Regina for her all that time ago. She remembered Regina's scathing remark when she discovered her wearing it. _Enjoy my shirt. Because that's all you're getting._

"Hey, recognize this?" Emma laughed, holding it up. Regina looked up in confusion until recognition of the shirt brought a smile to her face as well.

"It's the shirt Henry took from me to give to you." Regina laughed warmly. Seeing Regina smile and laugh felt almost as foreign to Emma as seeing her peacefully asleep. _How many different sides to another person can someone discover in one day?_

"Here, why don't you have this back." Emma tossed the shirt gently towards Regina. "It's yours anyway."

Regina picked up the shirt, running it luxuriously through her hands.

"No, you keep it. It's been yours for a while." She had hesitated before making the offer, as if parting with Emma's shirt was a difficult decision. Yet she folded it anyway, and placed it in the suitcase.

"Thanks." Emma smiled softly again. "Anyway, that should be enough clothes for the trip, I hope." She zipped up the suitcase, and set it down at the foot of the bed near where Regina was standing.

"Hey Emma." Regina suddenly spoke up. "Be safe, okay. You can never know what to expect from Rumple, even if it seems simple enough what he's getting you to do. Just, don't underestimate him." There was a genuine warmth in Regina's eyes.

"I…I will. Thanks." Emma's smile was uncertain, but Regina's sincere concern for her safety had roused a warm tingling feeling in her heart.

Regina's swift hug that followed came as another surprise to Emma. Though it may have been brief, its effect on her was profound. The feeling of Regina's body against hers once more opened a floodgate, causing the memories that she had been trying to suppress all morning to rush back into her mind. _The curve of Regina's body, held close against hers, her infatuating scent and warmness, her gentle breaths. That _bliss_ of her nearness._

Emma hid her hands quickly behind her back and ducked her head, so that Regina might not see how her hands shook and her cheeks flushed red.

"Goodbye, Emma." Came Regina's whispered farewell.


	3. Her Cure

**Wow, sorry for the massive delay! I've been drowning in homework for the past couple of weeks and I've hardly had time to write.**

**No Emma this chapter, but a fair amount of Swan Queen still.**

* * *

The time that it took to bring Henry back home was all the time Regina had to form a new plan of what to do about Cora. Hopefully she could get her alone to talk with her, since turning her in wasn't an option at the moment, she realized. The closest Storybrooke had to some semblance law enforcement was currently leaving with Rumple. Regina _had_ to get Cora out of her house though—it didn't feel safe to have her there with Henry. _My mother corrupts young souls._ She would have to be careful also not to alert Cora to the fact that the Charmings knew of her involvement in the crime; otherwise they'd never be able to catch her. Regina couldn't risk that. She wasn't sure why she felt so strongly all of a sudden, but she wanted her mother to finally pay for all she'd done to her. What they would do with her once, or more likely _if_, they caught her, she wasn't sure, but it would be a start.

"Henry, I need you to go right up to your room first and stay there for a little while, okay? I need to take care of something," She instructed her son.

Henry looked skeptical.

"Can you trust me… one more time?"

He nodded this time and, to Regina's relief, went quickly upstairs and to his bedroom. _Now, to find my mother. _

Oddly enough, Regina found Cora where she'd left her last night, in the guest bedroom.

"There you are Regina. Where have you been?" she asked.

"I woke up early and decided to get a few things from the store." Regina lied coolly, praying that Cora hadn't seen Henry come in. Whatever her mother's plan to ostracize Regina may have been revolved around her not having Henry. She would know something wasn't right if the Charmings had returned the son of the supposed murderess.

Whether Cora really accepted her excuse or not, she couldn't tell.

"Mother. Can we talk about something?"

"Of course, Regina." That motherly tone that Regina had been so overjoyed to hear at first was suddenly off-putting.

"Why did you feel the need to…kill that man? Could you not have thought of a better way to get close to me?" Regina feigned ignorance of the fact that Archie was alive.

"Come on, Regina. Would you honestly have let me back into your life if you weren't…broken? Would you honestly have been able to see that I still care for you if you hadn't given me a chance because of it?" Her mother's sweet tone of voice was such a juxtaposition—the fact remained that she was telling her daughter she had framed her for murder and had her beloved son taken away from her—destroying the little Regina had managed to rebuild of her life, essentially—just to get her back. She was infectious—Regina almost wanted to believe that she had her best interests at heart.

"But mother…killing a man? Framing me? Getting my son taken away? How does any of that prove that you care for me?"

"Sometimes you have to do bad things. For the sake of something good. For the sake of my daughter." She placed her hands on Regina's shoulders affectionately, but Regina shied away from her touch.

"What was that you told me once? _Love is weakness, Regina,_" She mimicked her mother's tone of voice, "But now you say you're doing these things out of _love_? Forgive me if I'm having a hard time believing that."

"Regina…"

"Don't think I've forgotten what happened with Daniel, mother." Regina's voice may have been soft, but it was dripping with anger and resentment. She saw Cora's smile drop slightly, her eyes darkening.

"Regina, I was just trying to help you—"

"No, mother, you weren't!" That voice in Regina's head was reminding her in panic to keep her cool, but she began to find it harder and harder, and her hands began to shake.

"Regina, you were going to throw everything away, everything I worked to give you, for what… a _boy_?"

"You killed him. Right in front of me." Regina growled. "Why did you have to kill him?"

"Oh, it wouldn't have lasted. I gave you power instead."

It sickened her, the way her mother could stand there and smile, saying these terrible things so gently.

"And look how well that turned out." Regina said, gesturing widely towards both her empty house and the whole town. Her failed curse.

"Regina…"

"No, mother!" Regina couldn't even try to control her anger now. "You killed Daniel, you killed Archie, and you had my son taken away from me!"

Regina's hands clenched into fists, and it was hardly a conscious decision, simply fueled by her rage, when she shot magic at her mother. The sparkling ball of energy barely missed her, but the effect was immediate, her mother dropping her façade and retaliating against her daughter. Regina was thrown back by an invisible force, colliding with a table and hearing a crash as the vase sitting on top fell and shattered.

"You would use magic against your own mother?"

"Like you didn't use magic against me! You took my… _identity_ and framed me. You tricked everyone into believing that Archie was dead—" Regina took in a sharp breath, a sudden panic taking over her as she feared that she might have accidentally given away her feigned ignorance.

"What do you mean, _believing_ he was dead? Archie is dead." Cora narrowed her eyes.

She had, she'd slipped up.

"No he's not, I know he's not! He escaped, and he went to see Emma," She exclaimed, a sudden determination taking her over.

"And when have you spoken with _Emma_?"

Regina hesitated.

"When I went to see the Sheriff and turn you in. Last night, when I went to tell them it was you. To get my son back without you." Regina enunciated every word carefully, making sure he mother was now crystal clear about her intentions.

"You silly girl."

And that was when Cora dropped her motherly act completely, and struck with full force. Regina was thrust backwards again, at least seven feet before she stopped herself with magic. She summoned a ball of fire, launching it at Cora in retaliation. Her mother ducked to avoid it, but was hit by Regina's next attack.

Guilt weighed heavily on Regina as they fought. No matter how much she told herself that her mother deserved this for all she'd done to her, it still felt intrinsically wrong. She felt the same guilt she'd felt when she was young and first beginning to fight back against her mother with Rumple's help. But her memories fueled her rage as well. The two balanced out, Regina never feeling guilty enough to stop nor furious enough to unleash her full power.

The two women continued to fight, neither making any real gains on the other, until Cora finally caught Regina—an invisible hand grasping at her throat, causing her to gasp for air, defenseless. But once she had Regina captured, Cora's ferocity dissipated.

"I thought you'd changed, Regina." She whispered. "I thought you were trying to be a better person for your son. Why can't you forgive me and let me do the same for my daughter? I… I thought you'd changed."

Cora's words struck Regina like a physical blow, hitting far too close to home. She tried to form words, to respond somehow, but she realized that she couldn't have spoken even if she'd had the air to.

Only then an odd smile crept across Cora's face, and with one look at her daughter, she vanished in a cloud of purple smoke. Regina finally drew in a breath, gasping and sputtering for air, as Cora's chokehold had disappeared with her. Regina hardly had time to begin to process her mother's sudden change in action before—

"Mom!?" came Henry's thin, shocked voice. She turned to find her son's slight frame, trembling in the doorway. "Who _was_ that? Why were you fighting? _And why were you using magic?_"

"Henry…" she wheezed, "It was… It was no one. Henry, I…"

"You were using magic! You promised not to use magic!"

"Henry, I was just—"

"Who was that woman? Did _you_ start that fight? Tell me the truth!"

_Tell me the truth. _Regina had been just about to fabricate some story about how her mother had attacked her, that she hadn't actually started it. But she realized that she couldn't betray him like that, not when she was trying so hard to change for him. All he wanted was her honesty. He could forgive her, right?

"I did. I started it." She whispered.

"I can't believe you did that." Angry tears were welling in his eyes. "You _promised_."

He turned and ran, his feet drumming down the stairs, and the front door slamming behind him. Going back to the _Charmings_, Regina could only assume.

She felt suddenly like the breath had been knocked out of her—her chest caving in on itself. _I thought you'd changed, _Cora had said. And she was so right, how could she have been _such_ a hypocrite? After all she'd been through, after all the harshness she'd had to face because of her decision to be good, she'd turned around and done the same exact thing to Cora.

_Surely I deserve all this_, a cruel voice whispered in her head. She'd done too many terrible things in her life to change. She didn't deserve to have her son nor did she deserve to be able to forgive her mother. She'd been trying as hard she could, but somehow the world always betrayed her. She didn't deserve love and happiness anymore—that was the only explanation.

And Regina Mills, the proud and regal queen—steadfast and powerful and stony—began to cry. She felt her knees begin to give out, and she crumpled to the floor, tears flowing in utter defeat.

And that utter loneliness that had taken her over last night start to creep up again. That thick fog that had suffocated her, that dark abyss that had sucked her down. She was a fool, such a fool! She should have learned by now that somehow everyone would leave her in the end. One way or another, it always seemed to happen. She had only let her mother's unexpected affections lure her into a false sense of security and she had let Henry and Emma do it as well.

_Emma_. She tried to remind herself that Emma hadn't truly left her, that she was coming back and that she wasn't _gone_. And that contrary to everything she'd thought she'd known, Emma _didn't_ hate her, and Emma had believed her. Unlike this whole stinking town. Emma wasn't gone, Emma didn't hate her, but Regina still felt betrayed that she wasn't here now when she needed the comfort of her presence most.

_But Emma doesn't even know how much a part of my life she suddenly became that night when she climbed into my bed. _Regina stopped and thought for a moment. How _had _Emma become so important to her? She couldn't lie to herself anymore, thoughts of the other woman had been ever-present in her mind since the encounter. She constantly remembered the warm feeling of her company, which she was no longer so convinced was a dream. The furious blush on Emma's cheeks after she'd hugged her, which she'd tried so hard to hide, had given her away. Emma had blushed so beautifully and that was a memory that had persisted in her thoughts ever since as well.

And she even found herself reliving memories from before, which she'd never allowed herself to consider. Her mind had wandered through their time together, stopping to collect dusty memories and breathing new life into them. She recalled the time Henry had been stuck underground and her moment of weakness towards the other woman. The way that Emma's eyes had briefly flitted to her lips when they had been standing so deliciously close, which was almost an insignificant detail before, suddenly meant everything to her now. There had always been something there, she recognized as she flipped through their more gentle moments, but Regina had just been too deluded to see it.

Slowly Regina found that the more she thought about the other woman, the more the terrible grip of loneliness loosened. It was like last night all over again, yet even the simplest memories of Emma eased her solitude. It was the strangest thing—put simply, Emma Swan had become her cure.

_Emma Swan._

_Was it… love? _Regina finally dared to ask. She wasn't sure. It didn't feel like it had felt with Daniel. That love had been powerful and triumphant—enough to knock anyone to their feet. But this, with Emma, was less obvious. It had crept up on her when she had least expected it, not noticing as its soft tendrils had taken hold of her tightly. Yet it was deep, she found, the more she thought about it. It had always been Regina who did the enchanting, never the other way around. Only she hadn't been able to feel that enchantment, or more likely had subconsciously ignored it, before. Until she'd given in to Emma's closeness and this, whatever it may be, had been unlocked.

And Regina without warning found herself laughing. Never would she have dreamed that one day she would find herself trapped in a completely different _world, _left with nothing but her love of this strange woman, whom she was supposed to hate. She didn't laugh hysterically, frenetically, or even spitefully, but she simply laughed at the enormity and ridiculousness of it all.

But in that one bizarre moment, Regina decided that if Emma really was all she had left, then she would just have to have her for real, no matter how much persuasion it might take.


End file.
